It is becoming increasingly important to be able to conduct fast and accurate analysis of network systems such as sewers, electrical, or telephone in order to be able to quickly locate breaks in these complex systems, and be able to shunt flow around these breaks to facilitate quick and safe repair. Thus, it is necessary in repairing an underground electrical cable system, for example, to be able to isolate the area of a break so that workers may safely engage in repair, while redirecting flow around the break so that service may continue uninterrupted. In the past, this was handled without computer assistance, by reference to complex network maps. While reference to these maps was generally reliable, the process of network tracing was often extremely time consuming and subject to drawing misinterpretation. Initial attempts at computer modeling and assistance in this type of analysis generally required complex calculations, which could only be run on mainframe computers. With the increasing power of today's personal computers, it has become possible to conduct a limited analysis on these computers. However, the programming for the type of complex analysis which generally involves several thousand or more network connections has continued to require the power of a mainframe.